Monthly Archives: October 2011

Anne Arundel County celebrated Pro Bono Week and the 100th Birthday of Maryland Legal Aid last week by offering free, limited legal advice on civil matters in the law library.

“For National Pro Bono Week, we helped to expand the program to provide assistance all afternoon, all week,” said Maryland Legal Aid supervising attorney Lisa Sarro. “We helped to organize the event and recruit volunteers, staffed some of the attorney time slots, and had staff available to provide assistance throughout the event in case any of the private volunteer attorneys had questions. It was a great success!”

Fifteen Anne Arundel County volunteer attorneys provided 20 hours of free legal advice to 44 people. Each attorney was available for at least one hour slot (in addition to the regularly scheduled Wednesday program). Many of the attorneys stayed to help beyond their promised one hour in order to help.

Issues for which the attorneys were consulted included trusts, wills, torts, landlord\tenant, employment, foreclosure, real property, deeds, accident cases and family law. Now that the Family Self Help Center is located in the law library, many of the family issues could be easily referred to the center.

Managing partners from leading Baltimore law firms met Thursday morning for the Equal Justice Council’s annual fundraising kick-off, held at the offices of Rosenberg│Martin│Greenberg.

EJC co-chairs John Wolf of Ober│Kaler and Ben Rosenberg urged the 25 senior attorneys at the breakfast meeting to support Maryland Legal Aid. “In 2010, Legal Aid had 62,000 cases, representing people who had reached the end of their string—out of work and desperate,” Rosenberg said. “We’re asking you to remember that we all hold a privilege, a license to practice law that carries an obligation. If we don’t help people who can’t access the justice system, we’ll have even worse problems.”

Added Chief Judge Robert M. Bell: “I urge you to assist Legal Aid, which will improve the legal system and help the courts, which are seeing a surge in unrepresented litigants. I thank the members of the Equal Justice Council for their good work to help ensure adequate representation in the courts.”

Saturday’s Pro Bono Day in Towson, sponsored by the Baltimore Co. Bar Association, helped nearly 100 people with their civil legal problems. It was the first such event sponsored by the bar association.

“It went unbelievably well,” said Stanford Gann Jr., of Levin & Gann P.A., a vice-chair of the committee that put the event together. “People were lining up at 9 a.m. to get in. We saw everyone who came and got incredible feedback from them.”

Thirteen private attorneys volunteered (out of 17 total, including lawyers from Maryland Legal Aid). “Without fail, everyone said it was extremely rewarding and worth giving up a Saturday,” Gann said. “We got a real sense that we were helping people. Everyone got a detailed appraisal of their situation, advice on what to do or what to file. There were no glazed eyes.”

Some comments from participants:

“Given options. I started with crying and ended with a laugh. Thank you.”

“Eased my worries made things a lot clearer, so I know what I’m entitled to. Load off my mind. Thanks.”

“The lawyer explained legal terms that were complicated to me. This positively helps people living paycheck to paycheck.”

In addition, Doris Barnes of the BCBA, Yoanna Moisides of Legal Aid, Lawrence Burton of the Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service, Yvette Foreman of the Baltimore Co. Office of Community Conservation, and Scott Stevens of the Baltimore Co. Law Library were on hand to make the event run smoothly.

From Marylandreporter.com: “As the economy has slowed, the demand for free civil legal services has risen, but funding for those services has not increased.
‘The situation is dire,’ said Sharon Goldsmith, executive director of the Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland. ‘The programs are feeling stretched beyond their limits. The funding is not there.'”

“At Maryland Legal Aid, the jump in clients is apparent ‘in our lobby any morning,’ said Wilhelm Joseph, executive director. ‘We used to add chairs as the room got full,’ Joseph said. ‘Now, we don’t have enough chairs for all the people looking for help.’”

By utilizing the Internet and a call-in service, people with civil legal needs throughout Maryland can now access basic legal information by “chatting” online with one of four Legal Aid lawyers.

The lawyers also can provide web links with useful information. “Some, typically those with complex issues, will bring in their paperwork, said Sarah Frush, who supervises the center,” the article reported.

The workshop will include information on consumer issues including: bankruptcy basics, debt collection rights and how to stop harassing debt collection calls, loan co-signers responsibilities, pay day loans, and identity theft. Volunteer pro bono attorneys and consumer advocates will speak for approximately 45 minutes on these topics and answer questions.

This workshop is being jointly provided by Legal Aid in celebration of its 100th anniversary and by Mid-Shore Pro Bono, Inc. in celebration of National Pro Bono Week. The event is free and open to the public. Registration is not required. For more information, call Mid-Shore Pro Bono at 410-690-8128.

Press Contact

Search the Newsroom

Search the Newsroom

Our Services

Services provided to low-income people include employment (getting illegally denied unemployment benefits and back pay and wages due), housing (preserving affordable housing, stopping illegal evictions from public and subsidized housing, advocating for the correction of substandard housing, preventing homelessness), income maintenance (helping those with disabilities avoid institutionalization, preserving or obtaining public benefits, overcoming denial of public benefits), juvenile (representing abused and neglected children), consumer (preventing foreclosure, helping homeowners bilked by foreclosure rescue scams, correcting credit ratings, stopping dept-collection activity, overcoming illegal or unfair sales contracts, avoiding utility terminations), health (helping sick children and the elderly get medical assistance, helping seniors get Medicaid assistance so they can live in their communities), family (making sure custodial parents don't lose custody of their children, helping abused women obtain custody, divorce and alimony), farmworkers (educating and representing farmworkers regarding their employment rights and educating service providers, government and the public about farmworkers' rights and needs), and education (helping children get special education services to which they are entitled, avoiding illegal or unfair school suspensions and obtaining correct school records).

Pitch a Poverty Story to Your Editor.

Legal Aid is fielding a record number of calls from reporters. Suddenly, poverty is hot. Could it be it’s because so many middle-class people are slipping into poverty? Here’s why you should pitch your editor a poverty story: You’ll learn a lot about public benefits (such as food stamps, unemployment benefits and foreclosure prevention), meet some of our formidable experts…and gain expertise that could come in handy.
Cynical? You bet. I used to be a reporter.

Some Stats…

In 2011, Maryland Legal Aid helped 70,000 of our neediest citizens with their civil legal needs at no charge to them. Due to funding limitations, we are able to help only 20 percent of those who are financially eligible for our services.